I love your horse

[bilyou]

This is going to sound like a very strange question, but is Mandarin Chinese for "I love your horse" :

wo3 ai4 ni3 de ma3 ?

In traditional characters is it :

我 愛 你 的 馬 ?

I would be most grateful if anybody could help me with this!

Billy

[skylee]

我 愛 你 的 馬 ?

It is not wrong. But I would probably say "我很喜歡你的馬" (I like your horse very much) instead.

[bilyou]

It is not wrong. But I would probably say "我很喜歡你的馬" (I like your horse very much) instead.

Thank you very much, I know it sounds a bit odd but it's a direct quote and in the original context it has to be "love".

Thank you!

Billy

[gato]

Somehow it made me think of 我草泥马.

[heifeng]

It made me thing of 马子。

Gato, high five for mind in the gutter~ yeah!

[gougou]

Am I the only one worried to see this in the tattoo section?

[muyongshi]

Well, it is also the Quick Translations area, otherwise I would agree with you and be worried due to both heifeng and gato's train of thought. Which I must admit is exactly what I thought when I read the words 我爱你的马 and I could just see someone with a tattoo like that walking through triad district

[xuechengfeng]

Someone call PETA. I'm suspicious of the original translation.

[Lu]

我很喜歡你的馬: if you think this is a very fine horse, or very friendly, or it just won you a lot of money, or something like that.

我愛你的馬: if you want to marry the horse.

That being said, while 喜歡 means 'to like' it can be very close in meaning to 'to love'. Not sure if this is a regional thing, but in Taiwan at least, 我喜歡你 has the emotional weight of 'I love you'.

[skylee]

我喜歡你 has the emotional weight of 'I love you'.

This is how I understand it.

[HashiriKata]

Quote:

我喜歡你 has the emotional weight of 'I love you'.

This is how I understand it.

Then I guess it must be quite difficult to say "I like you" in Chinese ?

[Lu]

我觉得你这个人还不错, perhaps? I seem to recall someone using that with that meaning.

Or perhaps the Chinese just move on to 喜欢 faster than English-speakers move on to love. English-speakers, in turn, miss out on the word 'verliefd', which dictionaries say means 'in love', but from what I've seen on tv 'I'm in love with you' means the same as 'I love you', which is something different than 'verliefd'.

And sorry for the off-topic.

Edit: Wait, that actually depends on what kind of 'like' you mean. 'Like' is a wonderful word that way, can be totally innocent or very serious.

[Lu]

Sometimes I wonder if different people interpret these words in different ways, so you're never sure what the other means when they say 我喜欢你, or what they hear when you say it, even if you speak the same language and are of the same culture. Let alone if you're from different languages.

[leeyah]

Let alone if you're from different languages.

True... But sometimes 我爱你 can be even more misleading than 我喜欢你

I wonder if this applies to horses, too?

Edited August 1, 2009 at 08:09 AM by leeyah

[Lu]

Ah, but the OP is not addressing the horse, but the horse's owner!

[leeyah]

Ah, but the OP is not addressing the horse, but the horse's owner!

Pardon? I'm not sure I got it right, must be the difference in culture or whatever , but anyway... em 'I like your horse' ... how about 你的马真不错啊！Sounds great! And I'm sure a compliment like this from a laowai will make the proud owner (of the horse of course) even more proud!

PS: yes, I stole 不错 from Lu, but for a noble purpose, appologies

[Guest realmayo]

Thanks to gougou I keep thinking this is for a tattoo

[adrianlondon]

Maybe it's going to be branded on his horse.

[leeyah]

Maybe it's going to be branded on his horse.

??

Someone call PETA

Please do! It's urgent!!!

[muyongshi]

Even though it seems ridiculous to actually say anything further on this thread, in all seriousness a lot of the "confusion" could be reduced by including 匹. 你这匹马很不错，我喜欢你这匹马 all sound a lot better than 我喜欢你的马.